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Topic Review (Newest First)

12-30-2013 03:53 AM

NanoDave

Great journal/read, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to seeing your next "learning experience"

10-26-2013 07:26 PM

iter

Okay, pictures as promised:

First, the Alternanthera!

Some comparisons between size and emersed/submersed:

Glosso next:

So far what the tank looks like after I let it settle for a few minutes:

Crypts:

Here I want to say something important: I learned that whenever you tank down a tank with crypts in it with fish and shrimps inside, take out all the plants EXCEPT for the the cryptocoryne, net out all the fish and shrimp, and THEN take out the crypts. I said this because I took out the crypts first in the above picture of the tank after the glosso was taken out. I literally took 2 hours trying to net all the fish and shrimps out in pitch black, murky water. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I wasn't able to siphon anything out; the water was way to dark, didn't want to hurt anything or suck out more aquasoil, etc. With this experience, I did not want to mess with crypts anymore in the next tank; but I thought against it and will still use it, just need to be more careful. Oh well.....

Here, after the aftermath of the crypts:

Holding tank:

Water being siphoned out by airline tubing:

Well that's it, learned so many things, from glosso trimming to rescuing a tank out of an algae mess. Sincerely I say Rest In Peace.

It simply wasn't worth it to keep it up, the plants were all scraggly, a bit leggy, etc. My whole family was also sick of seeing the same thing for almost an year too. Therefore.............

IT IS TIME TO TOTALLY START OVER !!!!! I have learned so much with this first tank, and I will carry over as much experience as possible to this next project. The theme for the next scape is mainly stem plants, as well as utilizing the use of crypts again. The goal would be to learn and practice trimming, and also to develop a scape with as much depth as possible with the hardscape.

I will upload the last pic of this aquarium before the tear-down; it is currently in an algae mess due to the fact of simple negligence (I was having trouble adjusting to the new school year). However, I have already prepared lots of emersed growth space for the plants to go, so the plants won't be wasted. Plus they were NOT in any shape to be sold.....

As for the plans of the new scape, it has already been finished! The key difference between this new one than the old one is that I went to a pond design shop and actually got quite a few materials. The only problem is that I accidentally measured the aquarium wrong, so the rocks are REALLY OVER-SIZED . But fear not! I have worked really hard to make things fit, it will look really weird but should work, hopefully.....

Anyways, a new thread for the new tank will be up soon, please do check it out when its there!

08-10-2013 11:57 PM

iter

8/10/13:

Have not updated in a month, sorry . But things are turning out great! Many new plants, mostly the ones that died before last year that I saved through the emersed set-up. I am greatly pleased by that 10 gallon tank sitting outside, from 2 stems of almost-dead rotala became about 15 in 4 months .

I didn't take too many pics this time, but here are all the important things:

The right side. Should look great once everything fills in. A bit small, my bad:

Two very nice photo that I thought I might share:

The rotala haven't transitioned to submersed for at that time yet (This was taken 2 weeks ago). I already trimmed it today. No large pics sorry :

Caught it when the lights are almost turned off for the night :

The fish; need more neons, the rest died . The tank was really unstable due to the trimming and the new CO2 diffuser, so it was a really hectic time. Right now everything is doing well though:

And the FTS:

I am going to tear down this tank when I reach my goal for this aquarium, which is to learn glosso trimming, stem trimming, and learning how to stabilize the aquarium from an algae mess. So far the glosso and the stabilizing is done, just need to learn as much as possible on stems now.

07-14-2013 12:26 AM

iter

Update -------- 7/13/13

Spent the whole day working on the tank because of the work that accumulated from the previous two months of laziness . It was an algae mess before I started, but everything is fine now. Lots of changes happened. So:

First of all, I took out all the Alternanthera and moved some of it to the right side beside the Ludwigia. Those thick stems made me happy .

Probably the most exciting thing that I did was move ALL the Rotala wallichii in my emersed tank into the aquarium. Now I just hope that I didn't plant too dense

When I took it out the pot:

Preparing for planting (It's hard to see it in the pictures, but there is A LOT of stems):

In the aquarium:

Glosso is going to be ready for trimming in a few more days. Will trim sometime during the week when I have time.

I also mowed the crypts since things were going downhill for them. Should get better soon. The crypt petchii is doing well though.

FTS:

Nothing else to say, except that I missed breakfast and lunch because of this . Need to work on pacing things out .

07-05-2013 12:32 AM

du3ce

how did u get your pearlweed to grow that tall? thats nuts!

07-04-2013 06:38 PM

iter

7/4/13 ------ 2 days before next water change.

So, fish are here! Neon tetras was the choice, and from the looks of it I can say that it compliments the plants pretty well . I got 17, one died by an unknown cause, but it looked REALLY unhealthy anyways so I am not worrying about the rest of the fish. R.I.P. .

The Ludwigia arcuata is experiencing melting on a significant amount of stems. Only the healthiest stems are fine now. Unlike last time where I pulled everything out and started over, this time I will just remove the melted ones and at trimming time, replant the healthy stems. This should give me a nice background of healthy stems after 1-2 trims.

Regarding the Alternanthera, I am still trying to see the best way to trim it. It looks like it will not behave the same with "normal" stem plants like Rotala after trimming, so still researching on this subject.

FTS:

Neons:

Bacopa caronliniana replacing the HM:

Got hold of some Cryptocoryne beckettii :

I recently planted some of the Rotala wallichii into the tank, and still seeing how they transition so when I decide to put the rest in there, I will know what to do. So far doing ok, had a little hit from day without CO2 due to acclimating the fish, but it is improving again:

Glosso is growing nice and strong . This is most likely due to the improved CO2 injection of the inline diffuser, compared to a small venturi:

I am planning to trim it in about 1-2 weeks, when it starts to overgrow. Still waiting for more root establishment so the trimming won't be too hard on them:

Emersed tank FTS:

Since it is summer now in Florida, it gets like 6 hours of direct sunlight and everything is growing MAD. Added some of the Alternanthera in there, I'll see how well it grows. Also put all the HM that got replaced by the Bacopa in there, should look wonderful when it grows out. As a side note: Emersed for Ludwigia arcuata grows WAY faster than its submergent form. I compared it to the rotala emersed and submergent form. I will plant a stem or two of the Ludwigia on Saturday to see how well it can transition.

You can also see my laziness to not wipe the glass. Going to do deep clean a on Saturday.

Comments, questions, and criticism welcomed!!!!!

06-21-2013 11:31 PM

iter

So, after careful considerations, I decided that NEONTETRAS will be best for my tank.

The neon tetra in theory should compliment the plants well in color. It also doesn't get TOO big and my tank's specific conditions should make it happy . Going to start with 8-10 of them.

However, this will need to wait for about 3 weeks due to GDA algae. I wanted to try the "leave it for 3-5 week method" and don't really want to bother with fish during that time. Meanwhile, the fish choice would be subject to change due to me having time to think more about it. So in the end we might see other fish, who knows?

06-20-2013 11:49 PM

fishboy199413

One person to look into is Msjinkzd. She is great and can hook you up with any of those fish at reasonable prices and great shipping prices. She has a website www.msjinkzed.com .

06-20-2013 05:22 PM

iter

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charrr89

Love yr journal. I have no idea. Lol wen I think if a planted tank I think shrimp..

Thanks! Regarding shrimp, I think the 6 of them that are already in there is enough . Will get more Amanos if I see them on sale though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by melanotaenia

Great looking tank so far!

Question: After all of the trial and error, what are you finding is the best way to trim the glosso?

Thank you! As for glosso, because of my traveling I wasn't able to get any chance to try to trim it. But once this lot grows in I will try to trim it again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishboy199413

Microdevario kubotai or Boraras brigittae! The tank is coming along nicely.

I have to say Orlando isn't the best place to find good LFS, but I will be searching for species along those lines. Buying online is out of the question due to those ridiculous shipping costs if you want to make sure your fish stays alive .

Btw, thank you for your words!

Also, what do you guys think of Hyphessobrycon amandae/Ember Tetras (if I can somehow find them)?

06-19-2013 02:35 AM

fishboy199413

Microdevario kubotai or Boraras brigittae! The tank is coming along nicely.

06-19-2013 02:23 AM

melanotaenia

Great looking tank so far!

Question: After all of the trial and error, what are you finding is the best way to trim the glosso?

06-19-2013 02:06 AM

Charrr89

Love yr journal. I have no idea. Lol wen I think if a planted tank I think shrimp..

06-19-2013 01:48 AM

iter

I think it is time to start thinking about.............................

FISH!!!!!!!!!!

I am thinking of a large group of small schooling fish that will grow to the maximum of about 2.5 cm.

So, anyone have any suggestions?

06-15-2013 09:24 PM

iter

Now finally for the aquarium update ------ 6/15/13

This updates shows comparison between major changes that was done due to clean-up after I came back from Japan. So, I'll simply use pictures to talk .

The day I came back:

GSA

The next day as I cleaned things up (The GSA took FOREVER to scrape off):

Yeah it was a bit blurry....

Today, 1 week later:

Got something that took care of that stupid surface film forever:

As a side note, I HIGHLY recommend it. It is the Ista Surface Skimmer. Even though it is about $6 more than the more common Tom's Surface Skimmer, it is, first of all, much shorter than its counterpart. Plus it has a nice design as well as color. As with anything it needs tweaking to get it working efficiently, but it is definitely not a waste of money. The aquarium now has better gas exchange capabilities than before, and light penetrating to the plants without any obstacles.

Inline CO2:

One last thing
Anyone have any suggestions of what to do with this, it has gotten so big that I am using the name markers as support for it:

Rotala wallichii

Since I want to have some of the rotala inside the aquarium, how would you transform the plant into immersed form? Do you simply just stick it in the dirt and wait? Also, is is possible to trim it and then replant the tops like its immersed form? Anyone who has an answer, please tell me, I don't want to do anything rash before getting some background information.

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